The Convention of States Project announced today that it will distribute copies of the newly-released book, The Law of Article V: State Initiation of Constitutional Amendments, to key state legislators across the country.
Authored by constitutional expert Professor Robert G. Natelson, the book is the first legal treatise ever published on the subject. It explains the numerous legal and historical precedents that shed light on the U.S. Constitution’s Article V convention process, by which states are empowered to bypass Congress in proposing constitutional amendments. The book is an Apis Books publication and is available on Amazon.
Convention of States Co-Founder Mark Meckler said, “Professor Natelson offers a neutral, scholarly treatment of Article V that directly counters all the speculation and misinformation currently surrounding this important constitutional check on federal power.”
He explained, “We’re convinced that as more Americans come to understand this long-neglected tool, unfounded fears will no longer be an obstacle to the one effective means the states have to restrain our runaway federal government.”
With over 3.5 million grassroots supporters, the Convention of States Project is the nation’s largest Article V movement. Twelve states have already passed the organization’s resolution calling for an amendments convention to propose amendments that “impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and set term limits for its officials and for members of Congress.” Volunteer state leaders in all 50 states are working hard to bring that number up to the requisite 34.
When told about the decision of the Convention of States Project to distribute his book, Natelson remarked, “I’m very happy about it. This book explains an important right the Constitution give to the people of America. The more people who know about it, the better our constitutional system will work.”
Professor Natelson, who recently agreed to become a Senior Advisor to the Convention of States Project, is America’s most-published scholar on the U.S. Constitution’s amendment process. In addition to publications on many other parts of the Constitution, he has authored historical and legal studies on the amendment procedure for the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and numerous other scholarly journals.
Natelson’s research has been cited repeatedly by justices of the Supreme Court of the United States and relied upon in numerous decisions by other federal courts and by at least 15 state supreme courts. His commentary on the amendment process has frequently been quoted or published by media outlets, including the New York Times, The Economist, and The Hill.
Since 2014, he has headed the Article V Information Center in Denver, a source of non-partisan information about amending the Constitution. He also serves as Senior Fellow of Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver.
